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Structural and Financial Characteristics of U.S. Farms: 2001 Family Farm Report

by Robert Hoppe, James Johnson, Janet Perry, Penni Korb, Judith E. Sommer, James T. Ryan, Robert Green, Ron Durst, and James Monke

Agriculture Information Bulletin No. (AIB-768) 101 pp, May 2001

Family farms vary widely in size and other characteristics, ranging from very small retirement and residential farms to establishments with sales in the millions of dollars. The farm typology developed by the Economic Research Service (ERS) categorizes farms into groups based primarily on occupation of the operator and sales class of the farm. The typology groups reflect operators’ expectations from farming, position in the life cycle, and dependence on agriculture. The groups differ in their importance to the farm sector, product specialization, program participation, and dependence on farm income. These (and other) differences are discussed in this report.